Making use of the latest technology, we are now recording interviews and discussions, with a focus on member interaction.

Web-based broadcasting is still in its early stages, but through 2016 we plan to make it an integral part of the PIElink experience.

In the next column is a schedule of our recent and current featured broadcasts. These will be updated regularly. Earlier sessions where recorded are held in the library archive (ie: for members only to access).

The days and times of these discussions are not fixed for ever; but this schedule applies for July - September 2016. Other sessions may be arranged for specific purposes. Look out here, in the panel opposite, in the newsletter, and/or on the home page, for details of upcoming broadcasts, and how you can be part of them.

About the kit

For open dialogue sessions - such as the Transatlantic dialogues - we are using 'Blab', an open broadcasting platform. This has the advantage of compete open-ness - anyone can watch; and anyone who has a Twitter account can actively participate and join the discussion; numbers are unlimited; but the disadvantage is that to participate, you do need a Twitter account.

For private, closed group or 'invitation only' broadcasting, we are currently using something even newer, and much easier to use: 'appear.in'.

During the month of June 2016, as an experiment, we began scheduling regular webinars for members (and others).

Monday afternoons, 4-5 pm GMT:

Introduction - for new members. An opportunity for those who are new to PIEs, or to the PIElink, to ask questions, explain what you are doing, hear about what is happening elsewhere. Using appear.in, these sessions are like a local radio phone in - but with video; and with up to 8 participants at a time, the beginnings of exchange.

Thursday afternoons, 4-5 pm GMT:

'Transatlantic Dialogues' - open dialogue sessions with the US & Canada. These sessions used Blab, for an entirely open-ended discussion on homelessness issues, across the atlantic (from either side).

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From July 2016, we now are arranging Special interest groups - topic-focussed discussions (participation by invitation)

These sessions are discussions between members on a range of issues that members have identified as their particular interests, either via correspondence or meetings, or via the keywords. For these small group discussions we propose using 'appear.in' (thus with up to a maximum of 8 participants for any one discussion - hence the need for invitations.)

If there is a discussion topic you would like to find here - just let us know.

This was the first deliberate attempt at a transatlantic dialogue about approaches to homelessness, using Blab.

Here we have a discussion on PIEs and Pretreatment, and more, with Jay Levy, author of two books on pretreatment, Robin Johnson, co-author of the PIEs guidance, and originator of the term itself, Claire Ritchie, author of Westminster’s toolkit on implementing PIEs, and Ray Middleton, prolific Blabber, video producer; and also author of the Leeds assessment tool for complex needs. (aka: @JaySLevy1 @RobinPIELink, @piepeoples, and @Dialogical_Ray)

Note that this was a tentative, early adopters’ experiment; and we are still learning, for example, how to not sit with your back to the light; not get feedback whine from speakers etc.

In this un-edited extended interview, Robin Johnson interviews Ray Middleton of Newcastle & Gateshead Fulfilling Lives project on the ‘dialogic’ approach to mental health (and to many other areas of human social and cultural life) and especially to the value of this approach in work focussed on meeting ‘complex needs’.

In this early experiment in using new live streaming, Ray Middleton interviews Robin Johnson on the origins of the term PIE; and his own personal journey from mental health social work into the field of homelessness.

They go on to outline some of the key themes in the PIEs ‘framework’ – with Robin stressing that these began as observations, not instructions.